[U-Boot] rpi: bcm2835_sdhost: occasional errors while writing

[Zubair Lutfullah Kakakhel]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2019 at 10:43 AM Zubair Lutfullah Kakakhel
<zubair at balena.io> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I've encountered occasional glitches while writing to the sd card
> via u-boot(2018.07) on a Pi 3 B+. The goal is to write the bootcount
> in the boot partition. As a test, this is the loop I used to read, display
> contents, write to the same file over and over again.
>
> ```
> mw 200000 0
> while itest *200000 == 0 ; do
>     fatload mmc 0:1 $kernel_addr_r resin-image
>     md $kernel_addr_r 18
>     fatwrite mmc 0:1 $kernel_addr_r resin-image 18
>     echo === done ====
> done
> ```
> resin-image is a file in the boot partition that has some text in it.
>
> After a few minutes of this loop running, I 'sometimes' get this error
> and the sd card stops working
>
> ```
> writing resin-image
> wait_transfer_complete - still waiting after 100001 retries
> mmc write failed
> Error: flush fat buffer
>
> ** Unable to write "resin-image" from mmc 0:1 **
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:376/bcm2835_prepare_data()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> ** Can't read partition table on 0:0 **
> ** Invalid partition 1 **
> 00080000: 4e204f44 5220544f 564f4d45 48542045    DO NOT REMOVE TH
> 00080010: 46205349 0a454c49 0f030f03 0f030f03    IS FILE.........
> 00080020: 0f030f03 0f030f03 01600103 03030300    ..........`.....
> 00080030: 03030303 03030303 03030303 03030303    ................
> 00080040: 03030303 03030303 03030303 03034103    .............A..
> 00080050: 03030303 03030303 03030303 03030303    ................
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> ** Can't read partition table on 0:0 **
> ** Invalid partition 1 **
> ```
>
> What is even more concerning is that the device can't boot. Even if a
> write failed.
> Subsequent reads seem to fail as well.
>
> ```
> U-Boot> mmc part
>
> Partition Map for MMC device 0  --   Partition Type: DOS
>
> Part    Start Sector    Num Sectors     UUID            Type
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> WARNING at /home/zubairlk/resin/yocto/resin-raspberrypi3/build/tmp/work/raspberrypi3-poky-linux-gnueabi/u-boot/1_2018.07-r0/git/drivers/mmc/bcm2835_sdhost.c:408/bcm2835_send_command()!
> ** Can't read partition table on 0:0 **
> U-Boot>
> ```
>
> I can recover the device after a reboot.
>
> Any thoughts/ideas about where/what I should look for?
> Or if I'm lucky, any wip patches floating around?

Any thoughts?

Regards
ZubairLK

>
> Thanks
>
> Regards,
> ZubairLK
>
> p.s. The sd card is a good SanDisk one..